Ignore the rumors: The Coffee Shop isn’t closing

Rumors of an impending closing to the contrary, The Coffee Shop in Sylva is not shutting down, owner Phyllis Gibson said this week.

“We’ve heard it, too,” Gibson said. “I had a woman customer come in this morning and say she’d been praying over it.”

The rumor includes actual nitty-gritty details. That Gibson plans to close the Sylva mainstay for burgers, fries and slices of pie not for economic reasons, but because she and the workers there are tired. The Coffee Shop opened in 1926.

“We are tired,” Gibson said in reply. “But that don’t make no difference — we’re still not closing.”

Gibson said that a slew of recent business shutdowns in Sylva might have fueled the rumor of The Coffee Shop’s imminent demise, particularly the recent shutdown of Annie’s Naturally Bakery on Main Street. Additionally, 49-year-old Cope’s Superette will close next week. The decades-old Kentucky Fried Chicken on N.C 107 closed a few weeks ago, too.